Dynamic Tethering for Enhanced Remote Control and Navigation

Misalignments between display and control reference frames complicate execution of many remote control tasks by loading the operator's attentional resources with mental transformations. It is thus important to maintain alignment between an operator's controls and her view of the controlled object or task space. Maximising the operator's situational awareness within this task space by providing an optimal frame of reference also simplifies task execution. Traditional rigid tethering integrates desirable egocentric and exocentric aspects of a display by connecting an exocentric view of the task space to the system being controlled. This paper introduces the concept of dynamic tethering (a superset of rigid tethering) which also preserves the principle of the moving part while maintaining control-display motion compatibility. Two experiments are presented, which show that compliance with these principles decreases the frequency of control reversals, improves reaction times, and decreases the RMS error associated with tracking performance.